30:1 | "But now they mock me, men younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs. |
30:2 | Of what use was the strength of their hands to me, since their vigor had gone from them? |
30:3 | Haggard from want and hunger, they roamed the parched land in desolate wastelands at night. |
30:4 | In the brush they gathered salt herbs, and their food was the root of the broom tree. |
30:5 | They were banished from their fellow men, shouted at as if they were thieves. |
30:6 | They were forced to live in the dry stream beds, among the rocks and in holes in the ground. |
30:7 | They brayed among the bushes and huddled in the undergrowth. |
30:8 | A base and nameless brood, they were driven out of the land. |
30:9 | "And now their sons mock me in song; I have become a byword among them. |
30:10 | They detest me and keep their distance; they do not hesitate to spit in my face. |
30:11 | Now that God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me, they throw off restraint in my presence. |
30:12 | On my right the tribe attacks; they lay snares for my feet, they build their siege ramps against me. |
30:13 | They break up my road; they succeed in destroying me--without anyone's helping them. |
30:14 | They advance as through a gaping breach; amid the ruins they come rolling in. |
30:15 | Terrors overwhelm me; my dignity is driven away as by the wind, my safety vanishes like a cloud. |
30:16 | "And now my life ebbs away; days of suffering grip me. |
30:17 | Night pierces my bones; my gnawing pains never rest. |
30:18 | In his great power God becomes like clothing to me; he binds me like the neck of my garment. |
30:19 | He throws me into the mud, and I am reduced to dust and ashes. |
30:20 | "I cry out to you, O God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me. |
30:21 | You turn on me ruthlessly; with the might of your hand you attack me. |
30:22 | You snatch me up and drive me before the wind; you toss me about in the storm. |
30:23 | I know you will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living. |
30:24 | "Surely no one lays a hand on a broken man when he cries for help in his distress. |
30:25 | Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has not my soul grieved for the poor? |
30:26 | Yet when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness. |
30:27 | The churning inside me never stops; days of suffering confront me. |
30:28 | I go about blackened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help. |
30:29 | I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of owls. |
30:30 | My skin grows black and peels; my body burns with fever. |
30:31 | My harp is tuned to mourning, and my flute to the sound of wailing. |
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